Iluka – The Clarence River and the Bundjalung Headlands – May 2025

Posted on December 29, 2025 by Landangler

Sea surface temperatures remained a degree or so higher than usual at 23 degrees, during May. The wet weather continued. The Northern Rivers experienced significant, persistent, and often heavy rainfall in the latter half of May 2025, leading to major flooding in some areas and a persistent flow of fresh but dirty water in the Clarence River.

In the first week of May the swell eased off just enough to fish the rocky headlands of the Bundjalung National Park. The full moon was on the 12th but the only day that the headlands were really safely accessable was the 7th. We were approaching the time for the mullet to head out of the Clarence River and into the ocean in huge schools. The big jewfish and many other predators usually follow them.

I fished the early morning run in tide. It had been low at 4.45 am. The swell was at about 1.1 metres and the wind was a light south westerly. I was fishing with 40 lb braid and a 50 lb fluorocarbon leader down to a 20 g jighead, loaded with a Gulp Crazylegs jerkshad in the Nuclear Chicken colour. I cast around through the dawn but did not get any hits. At about 7.30 am I felt a grab and briefly lowered the rod tip to let the fish inhale the plastic. When I struck, the fish was on. I let it make couple of runs but prevented it from swimming under the ledge and then brought it up the stepped ledges with the swell. It was a healthy 80 cm jewfish. I decided to keep it for supper. I caught two more smaller jewfish which I released. They were both about around 60 cm long.

The tide was now pushing me way from my favorite ledge so I moved to another spot and spun up a couple of 45 cm tailor on a shallow diving hard bodied minnow lure.

The swell picked up and the rain came in again. The river was filthy but it was still producing plenty of smaller jewfish and some solid sized flathead.

Towards the end of the month I tried a few sessions on the rockwall at the mouth of the river. I found a few tailor and plenty of smaller jewfish. I only managed to find one keeper size jewfish, on an afternoon session just after the new moon on the 28th.

Iluka – The Clarence River and the Bundjalung Headlands – November 2024

Posted on February 12, 2025 by Landangler

Sea surface temperature was about 24 Celsius through most of November 2024, well above the long term average of around 20 Celsius.

The weather was kind with not too much rain and light seas. This meant I was able to fish the rocks on both the full and new moons. There was a new moon on the 1st and another new moon on the 30th with a full moon on the 16th, in between the two.

I caught plenty of tailor through the month. They would often destroy my soft plastic when I was trying to catch a jewfish. They were generally quite big, ranging between 45 cm and 60 cm. When I swapped my lure to a big surface popper or garfish shaped stickbait, I tended to catch bigger fish.

I also caught plenty of jewfish (approximately 35 over about six sessions on the headlands). I usually found them when I was fishing close in to the base of the rocks with big GULP soft plastics. I was set up with 50 lb fluorocarbon leader down to 1/2 ounce or 3/8th ounce jigheads, depending on the amount of swell. I used to favor using the lightest jigheads possible but I have recently been fishing heavier to make sure my soft plastics hit the bottom fairly quickly. When things are slow/tuff I often go lighter with both jigheads and leader, to get the strike.

The best jewfish / mulloway fishing session was on the 5th, just a few days after the new moon. I caught three keeper size (all over 75 cm) and 5 smaller ones. I caught the two bigger fish in quick succession, about an hour after low tide.

I caught a few smaller jewfish around the drop offs in the river. The trevally were also marauding around, particularly at dusk and dawn. As ever, I also caught flathead and bream too.

November had been another great fishing month on the Clarence River at Iluka.

Iluka – the Clarence River and the Bundjalung Headlands – October 2022

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Landangler

My fishing diary is now so far out of date that posting pictures may seem superfluous. But in the interests of trying to maintain and approximate record of what I caught and when, I will post some pictures for each month and try to catch up.

There were lots of flathead in the river in October and loads of junior jewfish. I only managed one rock fishing session and landed one just legal size jewfish / mulloway. Everything was caught on soft plastics.